Low Carb

Meta

Subscribe

Archive for the ‘Salad’ Category

When I was growing up, there were various get-togethers each year that I always looked forward to… Mostly I looked forward to these events because of the food. A friend of the family, Maxine, always brought this salad to church potlucks. My mom got the recipe from her and it became a regular summer salad at our house. I’ve re-purposed the salad for Thanksgiving because I wanted a corn dish on the table. And, well… it’s just a good salad. After doing an internet search, I find that this salad is called shoepeg corn salad, and while I saw some similar recipes, I didn’t see the recipe the way Maxine made it. So, here’s Maxine’s salad:

In a large serving bowl, combine all ingredients:

1 C chopped celery

1 C chopped green onion

1 can Le Seur green peas

2 cans white shoepeg corn

1 4-oz jar pimientos

1/2 C sugar

1/2 C vinegar (I’ve used both red and white… both are equally good)

1/4 C oil (My favorite oil to use here is olive, but I’ve used others successfully)

I had so many cucumbers after getting my fruits and veggies through the co-op. Cucumbers are not one of my favorite fruits, but I have a rule about trying foods I think I don’t like in at least 3 different preparations. After doing this, I realized that I did like more food than I thought I did – it just has to be made correctly.

The same goes for cucumbers. I mean, I like pickles, so there had to be other ways to eat cucumbers (chopping them into a salad is NOT a preparation I like). Sticking with the flavors that are in pickles – onions, garlic, and dill – I made up a creamy cucumber salad. I’d seen recipes that used yogurt, mayonnaise, sour cream, or some combination of the three. I decided to go with a yogurt/sour cream base and added plenty of fresh dill and several cloves of garlic (could have used more). To prepare the cucumbers, I peeled and sliced 6 of them and put them in a bowl. Then I peeled a red onion, sliced it and threw it in the bowl with the cucumbers. I added a Tablespoon of salt (next time I might use just a bit more) and tossed the veggies around.

I used ziploc baggies filled with water to weight the mixture down. (The cucumbers and onions were sitting in a colander over a bowl).

The bowl went in the fridge and sat there for 3 hours at which time I had a lot of water that had drained out of the cucumbers. Without rinsing the salt off the cucumbers and onions, I put them in a serving bowl and tossed with the yogurt/sour cream/dill/garlic mix.

I let the salad sit in the fridge another hour or so and then I tried a serving.

So, now I have another way I like cucumbers besides pickles. And, I still have quite a few cucumbers left. I’ll let you know what I do with them…

I was never a big fan of salads until I learned that people could make their own salad dressings. It’s a little sad that my only experiences with salad dressings when I was growing up were those bottles on the supermarket shelves – often loaded with preservatives, high fructose corn syrup, and chemicals that defy pronunciation.

My first “homemade” salad dressing was just vinegar and oil – with a variety of spices from the spice rack that I decided to toss in there – tasting as I went until I was pleased with the result. It was considerably better than purchasing dressing – and no where near as fresh tasting as the dressings I make now.

Tonight the sous chefs and I made salads. Yes – salads – two of them, in fact. We made a Build Your Own Taco Salad Bar for dinner – and then enjoyed a great fruit salad (in a pineapple boat) for dessert.

Make Your Own Taco Salad

We had a lot of fun with this salad. When we were done with all the components, we put them out on the counter so that each of us could build our own taco salads. Put out bowls of the following:

Chopped Lettuce

Grated Cheese

Your favorite taco meat

Sliced avocadoes

Chunky Salsa (Recipe follows)

Avocado Dressing (Recipe follows)

Let each diner create their own taco salads – the little sous chef certainly enjoyed making his own dinner!

Who says you can’t have a salad bar at home?

Chunky Salsa

2 tomatoes

1 onion

2 cloves garlic

1 jalapeno

1 lime

a handful of cilantro – torn

Chop the vegetables and put them (along with any juice from the tomatoes) into a bowl. Squeeze the juice of the lime over the vegetables, throw in the torn cilantro, and mix well. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Creamy Avocado Dressing

1 avocado

lemon

mayonnaise

tomatillo sauce (optional)

In the food processor, combine avocado, the juice of the lemon, and enough mayo to make a creamy dressing. I added a Tablespoon of the tomatillo sauce we made this weekend for the chicken and gave it a whir in the food processor until all the ingredients were combined. Right now, this is my absolute favorite salad dressing!